Youth development, Youth-Led, Co-Designed with Youth, Co-Decision making, by Youth for Youth, Youth Leadership.
Have I missed any “Youth terms”? Probably. While I could give you definitions for these terms, the definition and how it’s enacted will ALWAYS change depending on the context, the region, the adult sitting in the room, and the work at hand.
I come here as a dedicated youth development worker for nearly a decade now (starting out when I was a young person myself at the tender age of 20 years old). Working at various levels, and within multiple places and spaces within the Youth Sector. Once a champion of ‘Youth Voice’ and Youth-Led (and still am), I now come to realise new terms that for me, get me much more excited about youth development: Youth Powered, Youth Governed, Youth-Run.
With a looming demographic change, a new culture in how information is accessed and received, the ongoing issues communities continue to wrestle with, and capitalism wreaking havoc on our overall ecosystems, I realise ‘Youth Voice’ is no longer enough.
When being interviewed for my current role at the Clare foundation, I was asked: “If it was your money, what would you do with it?” My answer was quick; “I’d give it all directly to young people”. I got the role! I then came into Clare with a conditioned thought of what being a funding advisor meant; put forward well-established organisations with great track records, wham bam job done! This wasn’t the case, as my CE- Alice Montague challenged me “you know how in your interview you said you’d give all the money to young people… that’s what we want you to do”. I was shocked. People talked about these sorts of approaches, but they seldom followed through with it. Nonetheless, my Youth Development mindset kicked in.
I thought about previous working relationships I had with young people: the do’ers, the drivers, the intergenerational change makers. Some of the first rangatahi I approached were rangatahi who didn’t just work in youth organisations, they were the organisation! The founder, the chairperson & the CE. This was the likes of: Find My Fish Movement, Makeit16, Tertiary Education for Care Leavers, WAHI-Petra programme.
They had little to zero budgets, some had never even thought of needing a budget. These groups needed time to think about what Clare was offering them. Putting pen and paper aside, simple relational conversations were at the forefront of these partnerships. Time, lots of time and space given for the partnerships to take a natural pathway, one-off foundational costs to get things in order and more conversations, sometime totally unrelated to the work at hand.
When working with youth-led organisations there’s a few things I had to accept. Transience, pauses, irregular momentum, dead silence, talks of ‘life’ during strategy meetings, late night meetings, weekend messages, meet my friend moments, “have you asked your parent” check-ins, and constant monitoring of capacity and overall wellbeing. As well as setting deadlines that are seldom met, but bring a sense of structure, nonetheless.
I find myself sense-checking work/study loads and anticipating calendar alignment and the “hot take” moments. The moments where momentum is strong, the commitment is all in and the stars are aligned. Given young people often hold multiple responsibilities; trust me when I say, these moments can be few and far between. But if you can hold patience for these moments, it’s where the magic happens.
From an organisational perspective, all the above may sound risky. There is not much ‘return on investment’, and it could be a significant liability. And perhaps from some perspectives this could be true. But aren’t most things that bring innovation, transformative change and new generational thinking quite challenging?
Clare’s approach is different because it moves beyond power sharing to power giving, it goes further to support not only youth-voice but also youth-governed, youth-led to youth empowered. Through this approach Clare’s aimed to amplify the wellbeing of young people and create conditions for change, for leadership, and for a culture where the young people of Aotearoa not only feel heard, but they also feel purposeful, respected and valued members of our communities. Sometimes all it takes is a bit of trust, a committed amount of resource and a side of patience and care. A side of pizza and an honorarium will always go down well too.
- Stevie-Jean Gear- Youth Strategist Youth Wellbeing, Clare Foundation